Because Henderson craves attention like a drug (a problem given his own well-documented history with actual drugs), he was always likely to become increasingly shocking on social media as a way to get what he seeks.

On Monday morning, that led him down a path that ends in him being called a bigot.

There are a number of problems here, first of which is a stunningly dense world view for someone with the good fortune of being educated at three separate universities and one junior college. I also wonder if he was worried about his siblings when he decided to flip the bird to that LaSalle fan, or the number of stories that were written about his use of cocaine and marijuana.

There's also the fact that Marshall Henderson is Ole Miss, and Ole Miss basketball is Marshall Henderson. The university that defended him time and time again no longer can, because it's already had its fair share of LGBT issues this year. And no one at Ole Miss is even really in position to help him make decisions, and by that I mean tell him what to do.

Which leaves a 23-year-old Henderson on his own and no one to answer to. The NBA has never really been interested in 6-foot-2 shooting guards that can't play defense, handle the ball and make only about a third of their shots; when you add in a drug problem, they're not all interested. Henderson's future is in Europe, though anyone who watched him the last two seasons wonders how he would do in a culture where he was not mythologized and coddled. In the meantime, Henderson will play in $500,000 winner-takes-all tournaments with other "Remember him?" guys and plot his next Tweet. He's moved right past trying to be famous for playing basketball and trying to be famous because he is, like Kim Kardashian with a buzz cut.

It's not funny. It's sad. In two years of covering Henderson as close as anyone else, I never got a true feel for who exactly he was. When he wanted to be, Henderson could be charming and introspective. He could sign autographs for kids for hours, and make everyone feel like Oxford was his home and Ole Miss was his family. He could also be angry and defiant, refusing to go out of his way for anything or anyone. I suppose we all have moments like that, but Henderson could be both in a five-minute span. That's unusual.

Last summer USA Today Sports asked me to write a long feature for its college basketball preview magazine about Henderson, before his July suspension had even happened. We stuck with the story even though it was uncertain whether or not he would actually play (guessing correctly that Ole Miss would ultimately give him a slap on the wrist), but I decided to write more about the possibilities for the future than how many 3-pointers he would make as a senior.

I openly wondered what would happen if the storybook ending did not happen, and Henderson did not permanently change for the better. Because once Henderson is not in uniform, all he is proving to be is another uninformed idiot with a lot of Twitter followers. It'll only be so long until the latter is no longer true, and is it still #WhiteGirlWednesday if no one is paying attention?

Sports Columnist:
Hugh Kellenberger is the Clarion-Ledger's columnist, covering the entire state of Mississippi. He covered Ole Miss for 3.5 years as the beat writer, and has previously covered the Big Ten, the ACC, the NHL and local events during a 10-year career.